


To change the course

by elliceluella



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Hopeful Ending, Multi, Re-dos, Second Chances, Time travel fix-it sorta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 07:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10737342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliceluella/pseuds/elliceluella
Summary: Foggy, brilliant, wonderful Foggy— the one person who’s always deserved the very best of him, somehow always ended up with the worst instead. It’s one of the many regrets Matt will take with him to the grave.In which Matt gets an unexpected second chance.





	To change the course

Foggy, brilliant, wonderful Foggy— the one person who’s always deserved the very best of him, somehow always ended up with the worst instead. It’s one of the many regrets Matt will take with him to the grave.

“Please Matt, don’t— don’t leave me,” Foggy says, voice breaking, and with it the last parts of Matt’s heart.

_I’m sorry_ , Matt wants to apologize, but he’s choking on his own blood. More of it trickles down his cheek and onto Foggy’s pants, because that’s how he’s going to die— in a broken body with his head cradled on Foggy’s lap. _At least I’m surrounded by what really matters._ Matt thinks as he struggles to pull in Foggy’s scent one last time. _There are worse ways to die_.

He’s always tried to protect Foggy and keep him safe, but he’s always pictured Foggy with him at the end. A selfish fool, indeed, but he can’t deny the gratefulness and immense comfort that comes with having Foggy by his side. Matt would say a lot more if he could, but deaths were never meant for long speeches, no, that was for the living, and he’d squandered all his chances.

“Matty,” Foggy pleads again, a hoarse whisper. _Hold on, fight, don’t give up_ , those he says with clenched fists that rest Matt’s shoulders, so tight Matt can smell blood where nail has broken skin. His tears fall on Matt’s face and Matt thinks of the time they walked back to their office in the rain, high on their win in court and laughing at the sky, his fingers tighter than they should around Foggy’s arm.

Everything that Matt desperately wants but isn’t able to do dances through in his mind— clasping Foggy’s shoulder in a fond farewell before pulling him into an embrace, gently stroking his cheek and wiping those tears away, weaving a bouquet of apologies and gratitude with his words… But it’s time. His heart can beat no further. A sigh escapes his lips instead.

_Take care of yourself, Foggy._

 

***

 

“ _Seven o’clock A.M. Seven o’clock A.M. Seven o’clock A.M._ ”

Matt gasps and jerks awake, tangled in sheets and laying in a bed that should not be. None of this should be. He shouldn’t be here, not alive and awake in his apartment. His head throbs something fierce but not physically, for once his body rests in muted peace, but the memories of dying, of tears and regrets ache and bite.

He reaches for his phone and checks the date, laughs in— in fear and disbelief because it’s the day he heads out after another quiet day at the office to the abandoned warehouses right across the docks and puts a stop to a weapons smuggling syndicate, where a routine bust ends with him crawling back bloody and broken to his apartment and to Foggy because that’s become their thing despite all of Matt’s protests. It’s the day he dies in Foggy’s arms, done in by violence and crushed under the weight of all his regrets.

Oh god, Foggy. It’s all still there and so visceral: the way Foggy reeked of panic and fear, sharp sweat embedded in the fabric of his shirt, the tremor in his always soft, always gentle hands, that heartbreaking sound of him falling apart. Death has never been more than an afterthought to him, but realizing and _experiencing_ what his death did to the one person who’s always deserved the world? No. Matt couldn’t do that to Foggy. Not again. Not ever.

He’s going to do better by Foggy, make up for whatever he can, all his mistakes and wrongs that Foggy might not remember or ever come to experience. This Foggy would still be blissfully unaware of what’s supposed to happen tonight, probably dancing in his boxers right now and munching on toast, (“It’s a very Nelson thing but you can have it too if you’d like,” Foggy had said, warm and still slightly sleepy way back in law school and Matt had laughed. “I think I’ll stick to groaning and despairing at mornings over soggy cornflakes.”) but there’s still a Foggy somewhere that had cried his heart out, and Matt’s going to do everything he can to atone for that.

He’s not going to engage but he’ll still keep a lookout over the docks tonight, call for backup and alert the cops. Just because he’s going to do right by Foggy doesn’t mean crime gets free rein in his city.

Of course, there’s a fairly good chance that whatever this is isn’t real, because this probably isn’t what the nuns meant when they said “God gives second chances”. But he’s also been the type who ignored but never squashed that frivolous kernel of himself that _still,_ in spite of everything, believed in miracles. And even if, eventually, all this got swept away like ash in the wind and forgotten out of existence, it would have been worth it, because having one more day with Foggy would always be a gift.

Matt moves to the edge of his bed and scrubs a hand over his face, sighing as his feet touch the floor. He was always prepared to die doing the right thing, for justice, because the world was so much bigger than him and he’d accepted his place in it.

But maybe he’s misjudged his place in Foggy’s life. Maybe, instead of charging forward towards the end he should’ve focussed on his reason for living.

Well then. He’s not going to make that mistake twice.

**Author's Note:**

> After weeks (months?) of no writing, this little thing decided to pop up so I wrote the whole thing in one sitting ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://ellicelluella.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
